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Gender Stereotyping In Advertising

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People deeply influence and have a huge impact on each other. Interacting with others help us modify our thoughts, behaviour, attitudes, and feelings and adjust according to the needs of our society and culture. It is through socialisation that gender roles and stereotypes are developed and learned. Gender stereotypes have a huge impact and deeply affect the way we behave and think. Simply put gender stereotypes are the characteristics that are considered to be unique traits of women versus men (Cuddy, 2010). Conventional stereotypes view men as dominant and strong, while women are compliant. According to a Council of Europe study (2011), they defined gender stereotyping as the preconceived idea whereby males and females are naturally assigned …show more content…

Eisend (2010) coins it as the “mirror” and “mold” explanation. Holbrook (1987) states that the “mirror” explanation proposes the media uses advertisements which reflect the current attitudes, values and beliefs that are already inherent in the society. As such, any stereotypes that advertisements seem to be enforcing are merely a representation of the existing attitudes towards, and beliefs about, certain groups. Using this explanation, the media is merely using the existing attitudes and beliefs that society have about gender roles and thus, are just tailoring their advertisements and marketing their toys according to such attitudes and beliefs, in order to maximise their …show more content…

Singapore is a rather conservative and old-fashioned society where blurred gender roles and homosexuality is frowned upon. And because of the structure of our society, in order to sell their products, media will tend to advertise their toys as gender specific so as to attract customers. If they were to advertise their toys as gender mixed, there could be a potential backlash involved and the manufacturers could risk losing business and money. So it leads to a cycle of mirroring current societal values, attitudes and beliefs and molding future societal values, attitudes and beliefs, thereby reinforcing gender stereotypes and making it hard to get rid of

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